Friday, 15 May 2015

A Mahonia

Did you know that Mahonias got their name from an Irish nurseryman, Bernard McMahon, who
settled in Philadelphia in the 18th century? Apparently his business became a
centre for American gardeners, where everyone, from Thomas Jefferson
downwards, met to mull over the horticultural topics of the day. McMahon
wrote the first book about gardening on American soil, The American
Gardener's Calendar, which was a best seller for 50 years.'Im in the garage' really likes the colour of the Mahonia wood as you can see from these shuttles, it is a lovely yellow colour and contrasts well with the ebony and a purple heart shuttles sitting beside it.

This is a Mahonia bush next to one of the churches and this week it got drastically pruned and guess who brought the wood back with them?

You can see the lovely yellow colour already, but of course these pieces need seasoning.

Hi Sally, I read with interest your Mahonia comments. We used to have a bush by our garage door, and eventually, as it grew sideways and not upwards, we were 'attacked' and scratched when needing to get the car out! A few years ago we replaced it with a Eucalyptus tree. So instead of making the Mahonia narrower, we now have to keep the Eucalyptus tree shorter. On a plus side when we do prune it, it gives off a lovely smell!